Chatbots changing minds
Tech Life
BBC
4.4 • 221 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A study found AI chatbots can persuade us with fake facts. We explore what this means for politics. Then we speak to author of The Web Beneath the Waves, Samanth Subramanian, about the importance of undersea cables. Plus: The scientists working together with nuns to save salamanders in a lake in Mexico.
Presenter: Chris Vallance Producer: Imran Rahman-Jones Editors: Monica Soriano & Tom Singleton
(Image: A colourful composite of a woman with her chin resting on her hands, looking confused. Behind her is an illustration of a laptop. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
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| 0:30.9 | Get all kinds of Christmassy. Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Welcome to TechLife on the BBC World Service, the program about how technology affects |
| 0:41.4 | all our lives all over the world. Today, how much can AI influence our political opinions? |
| 0:48.8 | A new study suggests quite a lot. |
| 0:51.6 | Actors who are interested in engaging AI to persuade on their behalf |
| 0:55.5 | would certainly have no problem finding models that would serve their purpose. |
| 0:59.2 | We'll be hearing from a political strategist and from you about the research. |
| 1:04.8 | And we look at the web beneath the waves on which so much of our life depends. |
| 1:09.5 | Internet cables are surprisingly fragile, |
| 1:12.5 | and when they break, it's a disaster. The Taiwanese have gotten increasingly conscious of the fact |
| 1:18.5 | over the last few years that cutting these cables is a potential act of war that China could |
| 1:25.9 | wage on Taiwan at any time. |
| 1:28.2 | And they suspect that maybe some of this has already happened. |
| 1:32.4 | And two unlikely groups have teamed up in Mexico to help conserve salamanders, scientists and nuns. |
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